In contrast to watercolor, which is mainly dominated by large-scale manufacturers, in the field of oil paints, revival, handmade, and small batch production are the key words that are popular, and the oil painting brands such as Michael Harding, Old Holland and Williamsburg, which are well-known in Europe and the United States, have gained a lot of popularity. Michael Harding has been a supplier to the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum since its launch. Founded less than 40 years ago, Michael Harding, as a personal brand, has been sold in 27 countries around the world.
Michael Harding first became a brand on par with the old Holland with its high concentration of pigments, and even with the addition of beeswax to increase the volume of the pigments, the tinting strength remained undiminished. Unlike any other brand, Michael Harding provides the tinting strength data of each color number in the data card, which can be used as a reference for the proportion of materials used in color grading, the two grades of "strong" and "average" account for about 71% of the total color number, and the tinting strength of the rest of the color numbers is relatively weak, but the monochrome is still used with high saturation.
In addition to tinting strength, Michael Harding also provides color-specific data on drying speed, transparency, oil content, and toxicity, and the level of information disclosure is the highest among oil paint brands, and non-hazardous pigments are marked on the tube body according to the ASTM D-4236 art material safety standard. On Michael Harding's official website, almost every color has a description of more than 100 words, which is a perfect consumer reference, which is very helpful for expensive but consumable goods such as oil paints.
MIchael Harding uses only high-grade pigments to produce artist-grade pigments, with 95 colors that are durable and monochrome pigments make up 81% of the total shades, making them ideal for artistic oil paints. Most of the shades are made of linseed oil, and some of the lighter colors are made of safflower oil, with beeswax from the classical recipe added, giving the oil painting a buttery texture that is easy to handle and manipulate, but still quite hard when dried, roughly halfway between Windsor Newton and Old Holland. Flaxseed oil is also the choice of most brands with safflower oil, with the former drying fast and suitable for the base layer, and the latter being light in color and suitable for glazing.
The key word of Michael Harding's oil paints is "revival", and there are more than 10 shades of 95 colors that use the old master's method. 607 Stack Lead White. Among the oil paints used by old masters such as Rembrandt, lead white is indispensable, it is warmer than titanium dioxide, and it is still difficult to find a substitute in modern times. Michael Harding emulated the Dutch before the 16th centuryStacking processTo produce lead white, at the nanoscale, the pigment particles form agglomerates of different diameters, which can be stirred to form the smooth short brush marks that are hallmarked by traditional lead white, but can also be pulled out by continuous operation.
In addition to stacks of lead white, Michael Harding also has 7 white pigments to meet the needs of painters of different styles. The 7 whites include Warm Lead, which is used in place of Toxic Stacked Lead, but its color is closer to Warm Yellow than the milky white of Stacked Lead, and does not reduce.
Including stacks of lead white, Michael Harding excavated many pigments that were not covered by large-scale pigment manufacturers, such as Chinese cinnabar, real Neapolitan light yellow (lead antimony), and used to sourceAfghanistanThe semi-gem-grade lapis lazuli grinding ultramarine is regarded as a god-level pigment by many people. However, cinnabar and ultramarine, as Michael Harding's top S7-grade pigments, are sold for about 610 yuan for 40ml, compared with 50 yuan for S1-grade pigments, which can be called sky-high.
Michael Harding has been in close contact with many painters since its establishment in 1982, and his oil paint sets are not only introductory sets, desert color sets, and old master sets, but also a number of sets provided by painters with color schemes, such as sunflowers, streams, blue oceans, etc., mostly in 10 colors, and sell for 77 to 400 pounds. Because of the importance of revival, Michael Harding does not shy away from using pigments containing lead and mercury, and the toxicity is indicated on the packaging.
As a non-large-scale manufacturer, Michael Harding is destined to miss out on the Chinese market, and the other brands on the list need to be purchased unless specifically mentioned.
